1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208 
Circuit breaker
Page 54
Page 55
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
It's March 1979 — few have heard of Maggie Thatcher, Brighteyes is about to hit the Number One slot, Jensen Button isn't even born — and CM's new Scottish test route sees its first action. Nov after almost a quarter of a century, it's changed again.
It's often said that there are no longer any bad trucks —some are just better than others. And separating the good from the better is becoming increasingly difficult,not least on Commercial Motor roadtests.
The problem for CM is exacerbated by the ever-increasing levels of congestion on our current Scottish test route and the fact that, with the test running over three days, we are hostage to changes in the weather.
Traffic jams, and strong winds and rain, knock fuel consumption figures for six—occasionally leaving us with little choice but to retest, which takes up even more time.
That's why we decided to reduce the length of our route by a day and some 480km in order to get the results to CM readers more quickly.
The major difference is that we have effectively dropped the second day of our route, which took us up the M74 to Glasgow then as far north as Dundee before heading south to Edinburgh and on to St Boswells in the border region.
Normally,when you change test routes you have to start all over again with your test database — but we were keen to keep as much of our existing route as possible to allow for accurate comparisons.And that's exactly what we've done.
DAY ONE As with our current route, we set off from the BP Station at Hinckley on the A5 where we do our tank-top-to-tank-top start and finish measurements. From there we follow the A5 through to Junction 14 on the M6 at Cannock. However, as the A5 is getting more and more crowded we'll certainly be paying the £11 to use the new Midland Expressway as soon as it opens, if only to avoid having our fuel results upset by jams on the old road.
We then head north on the Mb (one busy trunk route we can't avoid) all the way up to the A74 finishing at Gretna for the night. As before we'll stop at the Moto Services at Burton for a break before. the final hour's jog up and over Shap and on to Scotland. The total distance for the first day remains around 348km.
DAY TWO Up earlc and we head eastwards along the A6071 through Longtown to Brampton where we join the A69.We follow this decent stretch of mainly single carriageway road all the way across the backbone of the country from Cumbria to Northumberland,joining the A68 at Corbridge.
The goods news from a comparison point of view is that the rest of the route back down south to Hinkley is exactly the same as the last day of our previous test.
Although we have lost a couple of the nastier hills on the A68 (having joined it lower down) there are still plenty of good hard climbs at Riding Mill, Kiln Pit Hill and Castleside in our new revised route.
Moreover. the 'easy A-road' and 'tough motorway' sections are exactly as before —so readers will still be able to compare a truck's fuel figures for both of those important sections, regardless of whether it's been run over the old and new route.
The remainder of the route home is down the Al/Al(M), picking up the M62 and eventually on to the MI all the way down to Junction 21 and the M69 which takes us back to the AS and Hinckley.The total distance for day two is 347.9km, giving us a total for the two days of 760.5km.
Although our road route is shorter, we'll still be doing our usual track work at the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA) proving ground — including full brake stops, acceleration and noise readings — although changes to the layout of the test hill that cause trailer under-run bars to foul the ground have seen us abandon hill starts for artics.
We'll also continue using our two Fruehauf 13.6m curtainsider test trailers (which we share with our sister title TRUCK) ballasted for 40 and 44-tonne gross weights.
By cutting down the route we're hoping that we'll be less hostage to fortune, especially with the weather, further encouraging the truck manufacturers to put their money where their collective mouths are — and provide us with more vehicles for test!